The animal on the cover of UML 2.0 in a Nutshell is a chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes). Chimpanzees use a vast array of facial expressions, postures, and gestures to communicate with each other, in addition to at least 32 different sounds. There is some evidence to suggest that chimpanzees can learn symbolic languages.The natural habitat of the chimpanzee is western Africa, from Sierra Leone to the Great Lakes east of the Congo. Living primarily in forested areas, chimpanzees spend 50 to 70 percent of their time in trees. They are omnivores, eating primarily fruits and vegetables, but they will also hunt and eat small animals. They live in family groups that consist of about twice as many females as males. While adult chimpanzees aren't monogamous, there's a close bond between a young chimp and its parents, and this bond remains unbroken for life. Chimpanzees are very sociable and affectionate animals, and frequently hug, kiss, stroke each other, or hold hands. Violent fights often break out within a social group. The loser of the fight makes up to the winner by displaying submissive behavior and conciliatory gestures. In this way they maintain the social harmony.

Though able to, the chimpanzee rarely walks erect on both feet. Short arm muscles prevent simultaneous extension of the wrists and fingers. Because of this, chimpanzees can't walk with their hands flat; when walking on all fours, only the knuckles of their hands touch the ground. Unlike human feet, chimpanzee feet also have an opposing toe, but it's used mainly for climbing and for walking on precarious footing. The foot is rarely used for picking up objects.

Mary Anne Weeks Mayo was the production editor and proofreader, and Audrey Doyle was the copyeditor for UML 2.0 in a Nutshell . Phil Dangler and Colleen Gorman provided quality control. Peter Ryan provided production assistance. Lucie Haskins wrote the index.

Ellie Volckhausen designed the cover of this book, based on a series design by Edie Freedman. The cover image is a 19th-century engraving from the Dover Pictorial Archive. Karen Montgomery produced the cover layout with Adobe InDesign CS using Adobe's ITC Garamond font.

David Futato designed the interior layout. This book was converted by Keith Fahlgren to FrameMaker 5.5.6 with a format conversion tool created by Erik Ray, Jason McIntosh, Neil Walls, and Mike Sierra that uses Perl and XML technologies. The text font is Linotype Birka; the heading font is Adobe Myriad Condensed; and the code font is LucasFont's TheSans Mono Condensed. The illustrations that appear in the book were produced by Robert Romano, Jessamyn Read, and Lesley Borash using Macromedia FreeHand MX and Adobe Photoshop CS. The tip and warning icons were drawn by Christopher Bing. This colophon was written by Clairemarie Fisher O'Leary.